7
SEPTEMBER 2004 UN:
Development Agency Issues Report Citing Value of FOIA Laws
In an effort to encourage the passage of more right-to-know
legislation in developing countries, the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) has issued a report designed
to heighten awareness about transparency laws and their
value.
"UNDP
can play an important role in promoting right to information…,"
according to a summary
of the report.
While citing the rapid increase in right-to-know laws in
the last decade, the report also points out that only 30
of the countries in which UNDP operates have such laws.
The report describes these laws, their advantages, and their
evolution, all with the goal of encouraging and helping
UNDP country offices to promote their adoption. Alternative
paths toward the adoption of right-to-know laws are detailed
as a backdrop to suggestions for UNDP involvement.
Among these ideas, UNDP officials are advised to analyze
the current state of the law and identify the most important
institutional allies and potential blockages. Other steps
could include: raising awareness of the issue, supporting
activities that feed local initiatives, providing space
for a dialogue between civil society and activists and offering
expertise about the content of such laws.
The report was developed by Andrew Puddephatt, executive
director of Article 19 in collaboration with the Oslo Governance
Centre, a unit of UNDP's Democratic Governance Group.
4
MARCH 2004
EL SALVADOR: Journalists Propose Freedom of Information
Law
The
Journalists
Association of El Salvador (APES), along with
two other organizations, has called for the creation of
a freedom of information law that would punish public employees
who don't provide information to citizens and reporters.
Directors
of APES, theFoundation for the Study and Application of Rights
(FESPAD), and Probidad,
an anti-corruption monitoring organization, proposed the
new law at a recent meeting where they analyzed the proposals
of presidential candidates regarding the right to access
to public information.
One
of the presidential candidates in the upcoming March 2004
elections offered
to open information to the media, CoLatino
reported. But other candidates don't
believe an access to information law is necessary
for journalists, it said. For APES, none of the candidates
has a clear proposal on the topic, while Salvadoran reporters
said that delays and denials in providing information have
created obstacles for reporters.
27
FEBRUARY 2004
INDIA: Citizens in Pune Exercising Right to Know
Newindpress.com
(India)reports that Maj Gen
(retd) S C N Jatar, who heads the Nagrik Chetna Manch in
Pune, has invoked the Right to Information Act to leave
the city administration red in the face, exposing the misuse
of official cars by elected representatives.
What
he found was that not only were the cars taken outside city
limits for personal use, not even paying the nominal sum
they are supposed to, but on several days, mayor Dipti Chowdhury
was recorded as being in two places at the same time. Favourite
destinations: tourist spots and pilgrim points.
As
for the last item on Jatar's right to know list, an audit
on the use of the vehicles, Pune Municipal Corporation's
(PMC) public information officer (PIO) finally confessed:
no audit had ever been conducted.
Jatar
checked out logbook entries of official cars allotted to
mayor Chowdhury, deputy mayor Dilip Barate, PMC standing
committee chairman Dilip Tupe, Leader of Opposition Ramesh
Bagwe.
Quizzed
on the indiscriminate use of the official car, Bagwe came
up with a bewildering explanation: ``I see myself as a worker
of the downtrodden, my people feel proud to see me in an
official car.''
Mayor
Chowdhury insisted she used her official car outside city
limits "only in an emergency, though I have used the
car sometimes to visit religious places."
Asked
how could she be at two places at the same time, Chowdhury
said: ''What can I do if corporators keep using my spare
car?''
The
PMC rulebook says that cars allotted to office-bearers can
be taken outside municipal limits only with the mayor's
permission and on payment of a nominal sum.
25
FEBRUARY 2004
ISRAEL: Land Registry on Internet from March 1
Globes
online (Israel)reports that
Minister without portfolio Meir Sheetrit has ordered that
the Land Registry ("Tabu") services be made available
online as of March 1. The decision is part of Sheetrit's
plan to expand the open government project.
Sheetrit
says the decision to expand the open government project
was taken in response to the spread of deal-makers during
the civil servants sanctions, when Land Registry offices
were closed for three straight months.
Under
the government computerization project, four franchisees
will provide Land Registry services, receiving the full
commissions in exchange. Viewing documents will cost NIS
10.
25
FEBRUARY 2004
UK: Charge Against GCHQ Whistleblower Dropped
The
Telegraph (UK) reports that charges of disclosing
information against a British intelligence officer have
been dropped. Katharine Gun, 29, had been accused of leaking
a memo on an alleged American "dirty tricks" campaign.
She was charged under the Official Secrets Act of 1989,
accused of disclosing security and intelligence information.
The
prosecution said it would offer no evidence against her.
Miss Gun, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was sacked from
her job as a translator at the Government Communications
Headquarters, the security service's main monitoring centre,
in June last year.
She
was accused of disclosing a request allegedly from a US
National Security Agency official requesting help from British
Intelligence to tap the telephones of UN Security Council
delegates in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
Miss
Gun said at the time: "Any disclosures were justified
because they exposed illegality by the US, who tried to
subvert our security services."
20
FEBRUARY 2004
ARMENIA: Amendments Undermine FOI Law
The
Freedom of Information Civic Initiativeissued
a public statement suggesting that the proposed amendments
to the Armenian Law on Freedom of Information will undermine
the right of access to information if adopted by the Armenian
parliament. The amendments, to the FOI law adopted in September
2003, limit the information which should be made available
under the law and provide greater scope for exemptions and
classification of information through other laws which could
override the FOI law.
"The
proposed changes pose a serious threat to government transparency
and anti-corruption initiatives in Armenia," commented
Shushan Doydoyan on behalf of the Freedom of Information
Civic Initiative, which is calling for the Government to
withdraw the amendments.
20
FEBRUARY 2004
Former WTO Official Calls for More Openness
James
Bacchus, a former member of the Appellate Body of the World
Trade Organization writes in the Washington
Post in favor of allowing more transparency
and public scrutiny in the WTO process. Bacchus argues to
allow the the 6 billion people in the world who are served
by the WTO see the organization as it really is.
"If
we don't, it's unlikely that members of the WTO will ever
secure the public support needed to maximize the many gains
to be made from trade through a rule-based world trading
system."
The
WTO calls its proceedings confidential. The rest of the
world calls them secret. There is no reason for WTO proceedings
to remain secret, and there is every reason for them to
be open to public scrutiny. It's only because the doors
are closed that critics of the WTO can claim any credibility
in referring to the organization as a star chamber or kangaroo
court. It's only because the doors are closed that there
are suspicions that the WTO decision-making process may
not be consistent with the WTO treaty.
If
the doors were opened for dispute-settlement proceedings,
the world would see that those who have been entrusted with
responsibility for helping resolve trade disputes are fulfilling
that responsibility correctly and conscientiously. WTO jurists
are independent, impartial, fair, objective and exhaustive
in examining every nuance of issues raised. It's only because
the doors are closed that anyone is able to suggest otherwise.
19
FEBRUARY 2004
GEORGIA: President Proposes Release of KGB Files
RFE/RL
Newslinereports that Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili has proposed to declassify
the remaining Soviet-era KGB files at the ministry's disposal
even though doing so could cause "problems" for
some people. But he noted at the same time that some of
the former KGB archives were transferred to Moscow in the
early 1990s shortly after the collapse of the USSR, and
more were sent to Russia during Igor Giorgadze's tenure
as state security minister in 1993-95.
17
FEBRUARY 2004
USA: Central Intelligence Agency Budget Secrets
The
Washington Post opines on a recent victory
the US CIA received in court. The agency managed to convince
a federal court in Washington that if the public learned
the total amount the United States spent on intelligence
in fiscal 2002, intelligence sources and methods could be
compromised. The agency cares a lot about this pointless
bit of secrecy.
Since
1995, Steven Aftergood—an anti-secrecy activist with
the Federation of
American Scientists—has been seeking
the release of intelligence budget numbers, historical and
current. In response to an earlier lawsuit brought by Mr.
Aftergood, the agency released the aggregate figure for
fiscal 1997 ($26.6 billion), and it did so again the following
year ($26.7 billion). But after that, CIA Director George
J. Tenet refused further disclosures. Publicizing the 2002
figure, he told the court in an unclassified declaration,
"could be expected to provide foreign intelligence
services with a valuable benchmark for identifying and frustrating
U.S. intelligence programs" and "could be expected
to cause serious damage to the national security."
U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina bought it and dismissed
Mr. Aftergood's case.
The
general budget figures would be of no use to Osama bin Laden.
But when Americans are debating whether and how the intelligence
community failed in Iraq, the numbers might give the American
people some sense of the growth of the most secret parts
of their government and spur useful debate over whether
American spending in this area is an investment that is
paying adequate dividends. By resisting such minimal disclosure,
the agency only highlights a classification system out of
control.
15
FEBRUARY 2004
PAKISTAN: Journalist Critiques Secrecy
The
News (Pakistan) opines on the dangers
of secrecy in Pakistan. Beena Sarwar suggests that accountability
is a key ingredient of democracy—but there is little
evidence of either in Pakistan.
Ironically,
Pakistan is the first country in South Asia to enact a Freedom
of Information Ordinance - in 1997 through a presidential
order, under a caretaker set-up. The Ordinance, thoroughly
debated by citizens' rights groups, lapsed after it was
neither re-promulgated nor placed before the next elected
parliament for legislation. The present Freedom of Information
Ordinance was also enacted by a Presidential Ordinance under
a military government, in September 2002, but the passage
of the 17th Amendment has made it a law which needs no ratification
by parliament.
Of course, parliamentarians can and should debate the merits
and demerits of this law, which is fairly restrictive regarding
the information that citizens are entitled to. Clause 8,
for example, excludes notes on files, minutes of meetings,
any intermediary opinion or recommendation, and 'any other
record which the Federal Government may, in public interest,
exclude from the purview of this Ordinance'. Such restrictions
virtually render the law 'toothless', as the eminent jurist
Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim puts it - particularly since 'public
interest' appears to keep changing in this country, as the
last couple of years dramatically illustrate.
11
FEBRUARY 2004
European Court Underlines Public Access Rights
The
European Court of Justice in
a recent judgment has underlined the rights
to freedom of information.
In
a case that started in March 1999, a Finnish Citizen Olli
Mattila demanded access to a number of documents relating
to relations of the European Union with Russia and Ukraine.
Public access to documents in the possession of those two
institutions was, at the time, governed by a code of conduct.
The Commission and the Council refused to grant access to
10 documents on the ground that they were covered by the
exception based on protection of the public interest in
the field of international relations.
However,
if a governmental document cannot be disclosed in full for
reasons of public security or institutional confidentiality,
it should at least be made available in part.
To
promote freedom of information and grant 'the widest possible
access' to relevant governmental documents, the European
Council and Commission adopted a Code of Conduct in December
1993, later both translating that Code into (legally binding)
Decisions. According to those Decisions, access can only
be refused if disclosure could undermine "the protection
of the public interest (public security, international relations,
monetary stability, court proceedings, inspections and investigations)
or to protect the institution's interest in the confidentiality
of its proceedings."
In
its judgment of 12 July 2001, the Court of First Instance
dismissed Mr Mattila’s action seeking the annulment
of those negative decisions. Mr Mattila brought an appeal
against that judgment before the Court of Justice. This
judgment has now been set aside.
Related
Links
Press release from the Court of Justice, click
here.
To read the actual judgment, click
here.
10
FEBRUARY 2004
AUSTRALIA: Labor Party to Review Freedom of Information
Act
The
Australian Labor Party website reports that
Federal Labor will review the operation of the Freedom of
Information (FOI) Act.
The
Shadow Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon said that the Howard
Government had ignored the spirit and purpose of the current
law, and that Labor would look at strengthening and expanding
the operation of the current Act.
"Public
scrutiny of government is essential to any vibrant and dynamic
democracy," Ms. Roxon said.
The
Howard Government has become addicted to cover-ups, and
has repeatedly rejected requests from information about
core areas of government service provision including the
first-home buyers scheme, bracket creep and government contracts.
Labor
intends to reform the FOI laws so the public has all the
information it is entitled to, and can judge their government's
performance with all the facts.
Anyone
interested in submitting suggestions can reach Ms. Roxon
via email.
9
FEBRUARY 2004
ZAMBIA: Zambian Press Association to Relaunch Campaign to
Enact Freedom of Information Bill
The
Times of Zambia reports that the Press
Association of Zambia (PAZA) and the Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA) are today expected to re-launch a
campaign to enact the Freedom of Information Bill which
the Government withdrew last year to seek further consultations.
PAZA
president, Andrew Sakala and MISA chairman, Kellys Kaunda,
both asserted that the bill would benefit Government as
it would enhance transparency and accountability in its
departments.
Mr. Sakala said the bill was not only for media practitioners
but could also be used by members of the public.
He
said once passed by Parliament, the bill would allow any
member of the public to demand information from Government
which was obliged to release information unless such information
bordered on national security.
7
FEBRUARY 2004
Jamaicans Using Access to Information Act
The
Jamaica Observerreports
that Jamaica's landmark Access to Information Act has been
getting plenty of use since it went into effect January
5.
"Commendably,
media houses are among the earliest applicants for official
documents," said information minister, Burchell Whiteman,
noting that 56 applications were received in the first 24
days of the act.
Whiteman,
however, said nearly 20 per cent of the applications requested
information of ministries and agencies that have yet to
be incorporated into the act. They are not yet legally obligated
to meet information requests, he said.
Requests
made to ministries covered under the act, however, are being
processed, Whiteman said.
2
FEBRUARY 2004
SOUTH AFRICA : Access to Information Crucial to Socio-Economic
Rights
BuaNews
(South Africa) reports on the role that open
dialogue plays to ensure openness and transparency in South
Africa.
Dr
Leon Wessels, who is responsible for the right to access
of information in the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC),
in a speech at the second International Conference of Information
Commissioners, suggested that SAHRC had the duty to monitor
the implementation of the Promotion of Access to Information
Act and make sure that government departments and private
bodies met their obligations in terms of the law.
In
this regard, he said the commission was obliged to present
an annual report to Parliament.
"We
have traveled a long distance because we have constitutional
and legislative provisions but there is clearly not a culture
of openness and transparency. The lack of participation
by private and public bodies displays that," Dr Wessels
said.
Dr
Wessels said public bodies were required by law to report
to the commission annually on how they complied with the
Act.
"Public
bodies go beyond government departments, it is everybody
that is governed by statutes and receives public money.
It is national, provincial, local government and parastatals,"
Dr Wessels said.
22
JANUARY 2004
CANADA: Law Invoked for Raid Unconstitutional
The
Globe and Mail (Canada)reports
that security provisions invoked to probe an alleged leak
to an Ottawa journalist are so sweeping they might be struck
down as unconstitutional, experts say.
Use
of the anti-leakage provisions of the Security of Information
Act to conduct a search of Ottawa Citizen reporter Juliet
O'Neill's home has raised serious questions about whether
the law is consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Scott
Anderson, the Citizen's editor-in-chief, argued this week
that the searches contravened the guarantees of press freedom
in the Charter of Rights.
The
Security of Information Act makes it a crime to improperly
disclose or receive information that the government “is
taking measures to safeguard.”
Wesley
Wark, a University of Toronto history professor, said the
definition is rather amorphous and therefore worrying. “What
does ‘safeguard' mean exactly? That strikes me as
a very broad blanket that you can throw over all manner
of information,” Mr. Wark said.
UPDATE (28 JANUARY 2004) CBC
News Canada reports that as a result of the
outcry over the search of Journalist Juliet O'Neill's
home, the Canadian Parliament will review the law that
can make journalism a criminal offence, said Justice Minister
Irwin Cotler.
The
government wants Parliament to review the law, Cotler
said, "with a view to modernizing that legislation
and clarifying it and addressing the issues of public
security on the one hand and protecting the fundamental
rights of Canadians on the other, including in particular
freedom of the press."
21
JANUARY 2004
SINGAPORE: Singapore Ends Secrecy Over Indonesia Trade Data
Channelnewsasia.com
reports that the Singapore government has ended decades
of secrecy by publicly releasing its two-way trade data
with Indonesia for the first time since 1974.
This
follows a series of letters last year between Singapore
Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo and his Indonesian
counterpart, Rini Soewandi, who accused Singapore of being
unhelpful. Previously, Singapore released its data only
to successive Indonesian governments and left it to them
to decide what to do with it.
It
is widely believed this was partially due to large disparities
in trade statistics gathered by their respective governments.
Singapore's
trade with Indonesia totaled S$26.2 billion last year, making
it Singapore's seventh largest trading partner.
16
JANUARY 2004
JAPAN: Assembly Chief Leaks Requester's Data
The
Asahi Shimbun (Japan) reports on a Nagano
man, who applied for the release of travel data on three
assembly members who had gone on business trips using public
funds, and found that government officials leaked his personal
data to the very people he was requesting information on.
The
leaked data included the man's name, address and other private
details, the sources said. The Nagano resident had requested
the data under a prefectural information disclosure ordinance.
After
the request was filed, the administrative office told Minoru
Kobayashi, the assembly president, about it. Kobayashi decided
the three assembly members should know the man was snooping
into their travel records. He instructed the office to call
the three and tell them the man's personal data, which was
also later faxed to the assembly members.
``We
told the assembly members after the president decided that
they should know,'' an office staffer said. ``We have done
the same thing on other occasions.''
Tsutomu Shimizu, a lawyer at the Japan Federation of Bar
Associations who specializes in private information protection,
called the matter a "grave situation.''
"It
shatters the foundations of the disclosure system. Collusion
between assembly members and the secretariat to leak private
data makes it impossible for residents to feel comfortable
asking for information,'' he said.
11
JANUARY 2004
IRELAND: Businesses Account for 9 percent of FOI Requests
The
Sunday Business Post (Ireland) reports
that businesses accounted for 9 per cent of requests made
under the Freedom of Information Act since 1998.
In
particular, the statistics show that there has been a large
volume of requests from businesses for FOI statistics from
health boards and local authorities.
One
of the areas in which businesses have used the legislation
is in relation to obtaining information about doing business
with the government.
Dr
Maeve McDonagh, a senior law lecturer at University College
Cork, has found that the approach taken by the Information
Commissioner, in relation to the disclosure of information
about public contracts, has taken account of the stage at
which access is sought and the type of information concerned.
6
JANUARY 2004
Airline Blacklist Remains Secret
The
BBC reports on airlines that have poor safety
records, so much so that they have been banned in at least
one country, but are having their identities kept secret.
Flash
Airlines for example, whose plane crashed in Egypt on January
3, 2004, was only one of six airlines whose safety standards
were considered so poor they were banned or restricted in
a European country in 2002.
But
passengers boarded the doomed jet unaware that it had failed
a Swiss safety test and remained banned from Swiss airspace.
And future passengers who want to know the names of the
five other banned airlines face a seemingly impossible task,
even though these names are not officially secret.
The
information is held on a vast database in France and the
Netherlands. National governments know, but passengers and
- crucially - even tour operators can find out only if a
government decides to reveal the information. Protocol is
for the countries which imposed the actions to talk about
it.
"The
public has no way of knowing which airlines they are,"
says David Learmount, of Flight International Magazine.
"Yes they should know, but who should tell them?"
The information is not classified as confidential - but
it is not obtainable, it seems.
1
JANUARY 2004
UK: Ministers to Retain Almost 150 Secrecy Laws
The
Independent (UK) reports that Ministers
are to keep nearly 150 laws that deny the public a right
to information, according to an interim report on a wide-ranging
study that was intended to open up the Government and its
agencies to greater scrutiny.
Freedom
of information campaigners warned last night that the retention
of the "secrecy laws" showed that ministers and
their civil servants were still wedded to a culture of secrecy.
The review is part of a Government-wide initiative to repeal
laws that conflict with the new Freedom of Information Act
that comes into force on 1 January 2005 and gives everyone
a right to access information.
But
in a report seen by The Independent ministers say they want
to retain the right of non-disclosure in 147 pieces of legislation.
Ministers say they have not made up their minds on whether
an additional 70 pieces of legislation should also be added
to the list.
Yesterday
the Government's own information watchdog warned that while
many of these cases for denying access to information could
be justified in the public interest, a significant number
could not.
